LESSON
Lesson Learned: Strengthening Women’s Leadership in Jamaica
The degree to which the project met its anticipated outcome of increased national awareness and action in support of the participation of women was hard to determine. The project did reach women beyond the project participants but, without baseline or post-project information, the extent of this reach was an unknown. Anecdotal information suggests there was some effect, most notable in the National Educational Council volunteers. But the cultural and social attitudes that prevent gender parity are deeply entrenched and it will take more than time and/or the quotas recommended by the grantee to achieve true gender equity.
Project Name
Project Partner
Women's Resource and Outreach Centre
Project Description
The project aimed to address the under representation of women in decision making positions in Jamaica, particularly on the boards of private companies and public commissions. The project did this by: increasing the participation of women through training and awareness building and increasing the participation of women in leadership in community based organizations, including school boards, also through training and awareness building. It also sought to create a national conversation on the need to open spaces for women to participate in decision making. There was also a separate women’s leadership research activity undertaken in Trinidad and Tobago. Although women comprise more than 70% of university graduates in Jamaica, only 13% of parliamentarians are women and only 16% of the board positions in the private sector are filled by women. The project believed that by training 100 women it could make a strategic infusion of talented and enthusiastic women into the boardrooms, and transform their gender dynamics. The project met its main objective of increasing the number of qualified women trained and available for service on public commissions and private sector boards. Some of these women were already high profile leaders and board members, but most were entry and mid-professional women with leadership potential that still remained to be tapped.
Report
Evaluation Date
September 2011
Theme
Country